Design is designed to deliver one of SVU's most Rod Serling-esque teleplays and does so with the aplomb that has carried this series into nineteen seasons, and it has a surprisingly effective taste of sci-fi.
Estella Warren is April Troost. We first meet her straddling the edge of a large hotel's roof, threatening to jump - and almost ready to bear a child, a child she claims resulted from rape by a chemist named Barkley Pallister (Julian Sands). After Olivia Benson talks April out of the jump, Pallister is ready to go to trial when April disappears, and her car is found crashed and burned to a crisp.
Pallister covering his tracks, right? Wrong. April Troost's baby is real, but is also a master swindle on hopeful couples who are paying enormous sums to adopt the child, a girl. And it gets worse, for April has marked a slew of handsome men to seduce, and had worked for a creepy medical chief (Ronny Cox of "Total Recall") who is trying to create "designer" babies - babies injected with DNA of people with superior talents or IQs. All of April's marks have the same story - including Pallister.
All of this leads to the ultimate switcheroo, all of it leaving Olivia enraged at being taken in - but just when you thought you'd see every conceivable plot twist it all winds up leading to an actual adoption of a newborn girl.
Warren commands this episode, but also grabbing strong attention are Cox, Sands, and Lynda Carter as April's mom, who herself has a dirty little secret.
Estella Warren is April Troost. We first meet her straddling the edge of a large hotel's roof, threatening to jump - and almost ready to bear a child, a child she claims resulted from rape by a chemist named Barkley Pallister (Julian Sands). After Olivia Benson talks April out of the jump, Pallister is ready to go to trial when April disappears, and her car is found crashed and burned to a crisp.
Pallister covering his tracks, right? Wrong. April Troost's baby is real, but is also a master swindle on hopeful couples who are paying enormous sums to adopt the child, a girl. And it gets worse, for April has marked a slew of handsome men to seduce, and had worked for a creepy medical chief (Ronny Cox of "Total Recall") who is trying to create "designer" babies - babies injected with DNA of people with superior talents or IQs. All of April's marks have the same story - including Pallister.
All of this leads to the ultimate switcheroo, all of it leaving Olivia enraged at being taken in - but just when you thought you'd see every conceivable plot twist it all winds up leading to an actual adoption of a newborn girl.
Warren commands this episode, but also grabbing strong attention are Cox, Sands, and Lynda Carter as April's mom, who herself has a dirty little secret.